This year on August 29, we will mark the beginning of the seventeenth year since the establishment of the Pasargad Heritage Foundation and the launch of the Save Pasargad website (1). The foundation first started as a committee to prevent the reckless water intake into the Sivand Dam, and to save the tomb of Cyrus the Great and the historical monuments of Pasargad plain from what could have been significant environmental damage from moisture and dampness.
Pasargad Heritage Foundation’s actions were loudly supported by thousands of people including Iranians who love Persian culture inside and outside the country. Many people from other countries of the world have also outspokenly supported us, which has helped us to initiate a cultural movement in the contemporary history of Iran.
The importance of our foundation lies in the fact that it stands up to one of the harshest forms of cultural discrimination, as we stand to defend and preserve the cultural heritage of Iran, a land known for its wise, secular, and human culture in the history of mankind.
It is an honor for the members and associates of the Pasargad Heritage Foundation that sixteen years ago the foundation was able to collect nearly one hundred and fifty thousand signatures, with the full names and addresses of the people of Iran and of the world, and with the help of culture-friendly audio and video media. The cooperation of private and public cultural organizations outside Iran also helped us to save cultural heritage sites of the Pasargad plains from destruction by forcing the government of Iran at the time to lower the water level behind the Lake Sivand Dam by 25 meters.
In the last 16 years, the Pasargad Heritage Foundation has not only been able to inform interested people about cultural heritage events throughout Iran through a website dedicated exclusively to cultural and natural heritage, but in 2012 it also established another organization. The World Cultural Heritage Voices (WCHV) has become a voice for the cultural heritage of Iran, and other countries that are caught in the hands of careless governments, or suffer from war or poverty (2).
During this time we have been able to publish more than eight thousand documented news and reports on the findings, excavations, and destruction of Iran’s cultural and natural heritage to inform people and organizations such as The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In addition to reporting the above issues, we have continued writing and reporting on many other important subjects including education, Iranian celebrations, the relationship between culture and human rights, and exposing cultural discrimination, especially in the field of cultural heritage.
Of course, we have done all this with the support of people who love culture and are aware of the importance of the role of culture in creating a healthy society.
Thus, at the beginning of the seventeenth anniversary of the establishment of the Pasargad Heritage Foundation, we still actively work to prevent the destruction of Iran’s national heritage sites by the Islamic government. We continue our activities because we believe and love the wise and compassionate culture of Iran. We therefore ask for your continued support in these efforts.
With love and respect,
Shokooh Mirzadegi
Pasargad Heritage Foundation
1. savepasargad.com
2. http://worldculturalheritagevoices.org/
